The HLC Assurance Argument review process is now in full swing. We’ve received feedback from one of our outside reviewers, and are looking forward to suggestions from the Academic Leadership Group (ALG). The editing team continues to work on the draft daily, and we expect this to go on until the lockdown of our Argument later this summer.
One area that we are currently strengthening is our data on faculty publications. Although we have evidence in our Argument showing that “faculty routinely create scholarly works including peer-reviewed journal articles, blind review conference presentations, monographs, textbooks, book chapters, musical compositions, and scientific research,” (Assurance Argument 3.B, draft 2/24/2016), we want to provide overall numbers of these various types, so that the Reviewers can get an overview of the amount of scholarly activity among faculty.
To get this number we looked in several of our systems for capturing faculty data. CAPS is in the process of being populated with faculty data, but is not yet complete. Some data on publications and presentations has been taken from DigitalCommons, but according to Dave Gallagher, the data on publications does not always distinguish by type (peer review article, book, etc.). Therefore, faculty members will find their portfolios populated with this data, but it still requires the faculty member to manually check and if necessary, adjust the categories. Just a reminder, all faculty must complete their portfolios in CAPS by May 15, 2016. Until all faculty members update their information in CAPS, we will not be able to use this program for the data that we need.
DigitalCommons regularly updates their Faculty Publication and Faculty Presentation pages with the most recent faculty CVs in the Office of Vice President for Academics. Greg Martin, DigitalCommons Director, is able to generate what I believe will be the most accurate and up-to-date list of scholarly works. Another reminder, please keep your CV regularly updated. If ever the CVs would be examined, fall 2016 will likely be the time.
Although this is not the official report, Greg told me in an email dated Feb. 24, 2016, that the total number of faculty publications is 3,010 and the total number of presentations is 3,124. Faculty art exhibitions are 288, music compositions are 107, recordings are 42, music performances are 322, and theatre performances are 67. This yields a total of 6,960 faculty publications or presentations, with the number of hits at 58,802 and the number of downloads at 30, 516. As you can see from these numbers, we are being viewed and read by people all over the world (see the world map showing current readers at the DigitalCommons home page).
Report on Trivia Challenge #3: The question was, What is the CU career outcome placement rate for 2014? The answer is 96.8%. There were 5 correct answers, all given on Feb. 9, 2016. I must confess that I set up the quiz incorrectly and didn’t permit users’ names to be included with the answer. Therefore, I would ask, if you are one of those who correctly answered on Feb. 9, would you please identify yourself to me in an email (syang@cedarville.edu) and I will make sure you are entered into the drawing to receive a prize. Please do that by 5 pm Friday, Feb. 26. Thank you!
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